Robert Downey Jr is Iron Man

The spotlight remains on the eagerly-anticipated third instalment of Iron Man, which is still raking in the cash at the boxoffice.

Robert Downey Jr on the set of Iron Man 3.

Robert Downey Jr is arguably one of the most exciting actors working today. In a career that spans over 40 years (he made his debut aged five), he got his big break in the mid-1980s as a fringe member of the Brat Pack. He worked on a number of excellent movies, his Oscar-nominated role in Chaplin (1992) a sign that he was an actor worth taking seriously, with a great career ahead of him.

That career was seriously derailed during a well-publicised bout of substance abuse in the early 2000s, which saw the actor spending time between jail and rehab. Luckily for him – and for his fans – this was a battle he won convincingly, and the mid-2000s saw the actor bouncing back and making a series of diverse and well-received films (action flick Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the drama Zodiac, comedy Tropic Thunder) before taking on the mantle of Iron Man, which he was seemingly born to play.

“How do you take a billionaire, industrialist playboy and make him relatable and somebody that you can root for?” questions Marvel Studios president and Iron Man producer Kevin Feige. “One way is to have Robert Downey Jr, who just makes Tony Stark so likable and a great hero.”

This is a character the actor clearly loves and he has invested much in making him real and relatable

It is certainly excellent casting. It’s hard to imagine anyone else playing the eccentric Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, and for his third outing as the super hero, the actor continues to find challenges in the role. The story takes place in the aftermath of the events which concluded last summer’s Marvel’s Avengers Assemble; events which really affected Stark, as he begins to wonder what the future holds for him.

This is a character the actor clearly loves, and he has invested much in making him real and relatable. “From the beginning, with Jon Favreau (who directed the first two instalments), there was this sense of including the point of view of the fans as well as the audience coming in off the street who knew nothing about the character,” says the actor.

“We would ask ourselves, ‘What do they expect?’, ‘What do they not expect?’ and ‘How do we meet both of those requirements?’”

He acknowledges the similarities between himself and Stark. “Growing up as an actor and being in the public eye, there is this incredible hubris and ego that occurs, and then for any and all of us there is always an activating event in our lives that cuts us down to size. The nice thing about Stark is that he doesn’t even take himself that seriously because he falls so far from where he was. He really needed to, and I think people have always related to that life-lesson part of the character.”

The character has evolved over the course of the previous films in the Marvel Universe. Stark has had problems with the technology implanted in him to keep him alive, after shrapnel pierces his body in Iron Man (2008). This has been fixed, but, as Downey Jr describes it “in Iron Man 3, although Tony has now fixed his heart problem, he has not actually dealt with the wound”.

In the story, he is facing a threat to American security and needs to intervene, but he is also facing what for him are bigger problems closer to home in his relationship with the woman he loves. “So once you have all those things in play you go, ‘Okay, with all of those plates spinning at the same time, what is he supposed to do?’ That’s the direction we’ve chosen for the character and it is absolutely delightful.”

“The reason we cast him was because he’s a spectacular actor,” continues Feige. “He doesn’t rest on his laurels. He doesn’t come in and say, ‘I’m the biggest star in the world.’ He comes in and shows you why he’s the biggest star in the world. So when we began the initial talks about where we wanted to take Stark in Iron Man 3, Robert, as always, had a very definitive passion and drive to put in the time and effort to up the stakes.”

Downey Jr’s contract with Marvel ended with Iron Man 3, and as preparation is underway for The Avengers 2 it is still unknown whether he will return to the role. If this is the case, he will be sorely missed and the actor replacing him will certainly have iron shoes to fill.